CORPUS CHRISTI - Corpus Christi voters last November sent three Republicans to Austin — two of them for the first time — on a wave of support for conservative Tea Party groups calling for fiscal overhaul and transparency in government.

They arrived in Austin confronted with a gaping budget deficit, a politically charged redistricting process and a laundry list of emergency items from Gov. Rick Perry.

Led by Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, as chairman of the influential Calendars Committee, Coastal Bend lawmakers succeeded in passing several state and local bills before the regular session ended Memorial Day.

Corpus Christi representatives successfully navigated 14 bills through a process that kills far more bills than are passed, including one that will give government efficiency a foothold in Austin and another that will help officials prosecute those who alter disabled placards.

Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, added another 12 bills while also fighting to preserve funding for the engineering school at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, a program Hinojosa and former Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr. worked to establish during the 80th legislative session.

The original version of the House budget would have gutted the program, Hinojosa's Chief of Staff Rene Ramirez said.

Ramirez said Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, helped ensure the Senate budget made it into conference committee, where he continued fighting to protect the program.

Hinojosa also passed Senate Joint Resolution 4 to help smaller cities fund water infrastructure projects. The bill gives cities with lower bond ratings access to about $6 billion in state Water Development Board funding, said Hinojosa's legislative analyst, Arturo Ballesteros.

In what could be one of the more important moves for Corpus Christi, Republican Rep. Raul Torres authored a bill with city leaders that will authorize the city to use certain sales tax revenues to improve or expand the American Bank Center, including building a convention center hotel.

City Intergovernmental Relations Director Rudy Garza said Torres and Rep. Connie Scott, R-Robstown, learned the ropes while Hinojosa focused on the budget and sunset laws and Hunter worked to advance the entire House agenda.

"Todd's not going to be the guy to carry a bunch of bills," Garza said. "But he did help the speaker manage the House. This was as good a session we've had in both chambers."

He said fielding three Republicans in a Republican Legislature worked to the city's advantage.

"Corpus was a player this session," he said.

Others were frustrated by the supermajority that left local Democrats few options for advancing their agenda, defending education and social services from deep budget cuts and having a larger say in redistricting.

Nueces County Democratic Party Chairwoman Rose Meza Harrison said the session had been a nightmare during which Democrats had been shut out of the process.

"Tea Party Republicans in our state are now patting themselves on the back for firing teachers, closing schools and cutting funding for seniors in nursing homes while catering to special interests," she said in a written statement.

The House adopted another bill authored by Hunter and Hinojosa establishing a joint interim committee to study the economic impact of the cruise ship industry on the South Texas coast.

The Port Industries of Corpus Christi funded a study in 2005 that showed less-than-stellar prospects for luring cruise lines to the area.

Hunter said the state study, the results of which must be made available during the 83rd legislative session in 2013, will bring more visibility to the issue that could create a groundswell of support at the state and possibly federal level.

Scott passed legislation that will help police enforce laws related to the use of disabled parking placards.

Scott, who sat on the Local and Consent Calendars Committee where the bill eventually landed, said the idea came from the city's parking control officers who noticed an increase in disabled parking placards with altered dates.

Hunter passed a bill designed to help those afflicted with tick-borne diseases better access to medical treatment.

Hunter's constitutional amendment requiring lawmakers to set the state budget every year instead of every other year and another proposing term limits both failed, as did an effort to prohibit state and local officials from sending or receiving text messages or emails during public meetings or those constituting a quorum.

As a group, the local representatives' votes on statewide, high-profile issues offered few surprises. All voted along party lines for pre-abortion sonograms, outlawing sanctuary cities and tighter voter ID requirements.

Only the sanctuary cities bill, which Hinojosa killed in a committee, failed to pass both houses. The bill would have blocked city ordinances that prohibit police from enforcing state and federal immigration laws.

The only substantial break from the ranks came from Torres, who was one of only five Republicans to vote against the House budget bill presented May 28.

Torres said the bill created unconstitutional budget requirements, including deferring about $10 billion in spending into the next budget cycle.

"Touted by the Republican leadership as fiscally disciplined, I was not convinced this budget reflected cuts necessary to restore long-term fiscal responsibility," Torres said in a statement issued Thursday. "I voted against HB 1 because voters sent me to Austin to make spending cuts to get our financial house in order and this budget fails to do that."

Torres also voted for versions of a state windstorm insurance reform bill that could have raised rates in parts of some coastal counties by as much as 15 percent.

Torres, a member of the House Insurance Committee that took up the reform bill, said Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, the committee chairman, asked members to advance the bill in exchange for guarantees that rate increases and rate tiers later would be stripped out by amendments.

"Unfortunately, the Senate didn't agree with the House version so it added rate increases and opted to allow input from the trial lawyers, which basically killed the bill," Torres said.

Time ran out on lawmakers to settle the issue, leaving Gov. Rick Perry on Friday afternoon to add it to a list of items to be considered in special session.

Torres campaigned on streamlining government and cutting wasteful spending. To that end, he proposed a bill to implement Six Sigma, a corporate management strategy in certain government agencies.

The bill is on Perry's desk awaiting a signature.

Torres called it his biggest accomplishment. The bill taps the Texas Workforce Commission to serve as the pilot.

"I think Six Sigma will have the longest-reaching impact of anything we've accomplished this session," he said.